Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Teachers vs Coaches

I'm reading through Sal Khan's book The One World School House, and my mind won't shut down this evening.  Sal presents an immaculate argument for the advantages a self-paced curriculum where students do not move to the "next grade" until they have demonstrated mastery of a particular set of skills.  The most recent portion of the book I have read contains an accurate comparison of a teacher and a coach.  Sal asks the reader why some students loathe and hate their teachers, but love and admire their coaches.  He suggests that both teacher and coach are there to support students, teach students, and  motivate students.  "Both ask students to push themselves to do difficult things- not infrequently, things that kids claim they really hate to do such as deriving equations or running wind sprints."  He also suggests a noticeable difference being that coaches represent something students choose to do while teachers represent something students have to do.  Teachers are adversarial, while attitudes towards coaches are cooperative and enthusiastic.  Why do students accept criticism from coaches but not so easily from teachers?
Sal reiterates the problem facing teachers is that public school students are put in positions that lead them straight to eventual failure and embarrassment.  Students that pass to the next grade before demonstrating mastery of the previous skills and concepts are headed straight to frustration, failure, and embarrassment.  This repeating system pits teacher and students as adversaries, not allies.  Even the most sincere of teachers are facing insurmountable odds inside an educational system focused on test scores, educational jargon, state standards, and the latest fads-everything except the students.  Until we accept that 70% is NOT passing, we'll continue to lead students down the road to failure.  The swiss cheese approach to public education is leaving us stuck centuries behind where we could be.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Daily Activity/Students accessing Khan Academy on their own

This is a screenshot of just a section of my students who had any activity during the day January 7, 2013.  I included this screenshot because this displays how active the students have been, even on days where I do NOT take them to the lab.  We did not go to the lab today, but I've still got several students who were active during school!  They are accessing khan academy during their free time in other classes.  This is tremendous because it proves students are taking some responsibility for their progress in class.
Holding the mouse over any one of these bars, will reveal the name of the skills each student has been working on during their time on the site.  I will typically go to a few students' focus charts just to get a more detailed look at the skills they were working on, whether they demonstrated proficiency, or whether they are struggling, etc.